A police and crime commissioner has apologised for claiming that multiple human remains had been discovered in woodland in Cornwall at the centre of a murder investigation.

Alison Hernandez told a meeting of the Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel that “dead bodies” had been found at Sticker, near St Austell, and investigations were continuing to establish exactly how many.

Devon and Cornwall police said in response that the body of one man had been recovered from woods and no other remains had been found.

Police and forensic experts have been carrying out extensive inquiries in the woodland since the discovery of the body of 43-year-old Daniel Coleman.

James Desborough, 39, is accused of murdering Coleman, from St Austell, between 2 June and 7 July. He is due back before Truro crown court next month.

Hernandez said on Friday evening: “In trying to be helpful I responded to an operational question at the police and crime panel, however, I was not fully up to date with the facts of the investigation.

“I apologise for any alarm this may have caused. The police have operational primacy over these matters.”

Det Supt Jon Bancroft, with Devon and Cornwall police, said: “We currently have three separate murder investigations being conducted in the Cornwall area.

“I have oversight of all of these investigations at this time, and can confirm they are being carried out independently of each other and are not believed to be linked.

“I can categorically state that we have recovered remains believed to be those of Daniel Coleman only from an area of woodland in Sticker.”

Police are also investigating the discovery of the body of Lee Hockey, 50, who was found in separate woodland between Truro and Probus on 1 July.

A third murder inquiry is under way after a fatal fire at a residential property in Newquay on 22 July.

The body of a man in his 30s was found in the property, with a 33-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder.